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Ex-DEA Agent Says He Was Told Not To Make Drug Busts In Rich Areas (Video)

Matthew Fogg, a former U.S. Marshal and special DEA agent, recently claimed that his superiors told him not to target wealthy neighborhoods when he was part of the so-called "War on Drugs."

Fogg made his comments in a new video (below) released by documentary director/producer Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films.

Fogg described how his drug task force was "swooping down on folks all across the country" and using tactics that resembled "Vietnam, or some type of war-torn zone," noted The Free Thought Project.

Over time, Fogg realized that his unit was mostly targeting "urban areas."

When Fogg suggested going into wealthier areas to make drug busts, he recalled the reaction:

The special agent in charge, he says, "You know, we go out there and start messing with those folks, they know judges, they know lawyers, they know politicians. You start locking their kids up, somebody’s going to jerk our chain." He said, "They’re going to call us on it, and before you know it, they’re going to shut us down, and there goes your overtime.”

Fogg said that it became clear to him that the "War on Drugs" was really a war on race:

If we was locking up everybody, white and black, for doing the same drugs, they would have done the same thing they did with prohibition. They would have outlawed it. They would have said, "Let’s stop this craziness. You’re not putting my son in jail. My daughter is not going to jail.”

In 2014, the Brookings Institute reported that the "War on Drugs" disproportionately affected black people:

The black share of people arrested for drug offenses has ranged from 23 percent (in 1980) to 41 percent (in 1991). Blacks remain far more likely than whites to be arrested for selling drugs (3.6 times more likely) or possessing drugs (2.5 times more likely).